Intracellular injection with horseradish peroxidase of physiologically characterized stellate and bushy cells in slices of mouse anteroventral cochlear nucleus.

Nissl-stained tissue from brain slice preparations of the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of the mouse resembles tissue fixed in situ. Multipolar, spherical, globular, and granule cells can be distinguished after intracellular injection with horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Stellate cells have relatively large dendritic fields; their axons have collaterals which terminate within the cochlear nuclear complex. Bushy cells have smaller dendritic fields; where they can be seen, axons have no collaterals. Granule cells have few short dendrites; their very fine axons branch close to the cell body and could be followed only for short distances. Intracellular recordings from six stellate cells labeled by intracellular injection of HRP revealed that they have linear current-voltage relationships around the resting potential and that they respond to suprathreshold depolarization with large, regularly firing action potentials. Intracellular recordings from four bushy cells, also labeled by injection of HRP, showed that these cells have nonlinear current-voltage relationships around the resting potential and that they respond to suprathreshold depolarizations with only one or two small action potentials. The anatomical and physiological features of bushy cells reduce summing in time and space and make bushy cells well suited to preserve the firing patterns of auditory nerve inputs. The anatomical and physiological features of stellate cells, in contrast, allow summing in time and space.